Turkey Trying Out Its New Naval Development

Turkey’s home-made Atmaca anti-ship missile (AShM) has recently successfully completed a test to check the flight characteristics and or the range, the Turkish Navy’s technical head Admiral Ahmet Çakır told defenseworld.net. “We’re all closely following this project. Next year we will be shooting on the ship’s platform, we aim to make the Atmaca guided missile the replacement for the Harpoon as a missile. the Atmaca boasts superior capability and longer range in comparison to the Harpoon,” said Çakır. The Atmaca missile has undergone the first test firing conducted on a shooting range last year.

The anti-ship guided missile was developed by Roketsan. The Turkish Defence Industries Underecretariat (SSM) signed a contract in 2009 on the research and development phase of the Atmaca project, with Roketsan as the prime conrtactor, according to janes.com.

The serial production of the Atmaca is scheduled to begin in 2018 and will be deployed from the Navy’s corvettes and frigates, according to a media report. The initial production is estimated to be between 64 and 100 units.

According to Turkish Navy blog, the main wing of the Turkish missile is larger than its US counterpart. There are two hinges on the main wing of Atmaca compared to one on Harpoon wings; hence, the wing span of Atmaca is greater than Harpoons. This change was made to improve the flight performance of the missile. The control fins of the Turkish missile are considerably smaller than the US missile.